Shootout Seems to Be an Idea That Needs to Be Shot Down

A burning topic in NHL circles is the possibility that the league might adopt a tiebreaker shootout, such as the one at the Winter Olympics, where Sweden edged Canada to win the gold medal.

Mel Lowell, Tampa Bay Lightning executive vice president and one of those favoring the idea, told Jim Smith of Newsday: “Ties are like taking a bath with your socks on. Nobody likes ties. We are an entertainment industry; any form of entertainment that does not change becomes stagnant. I think a shootout would make the game more attractive.”

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Anti-shootout: Bruce MacGregor, Edmonton Oiler assistant general manager, takes the other side: “I don’t see NFL games being decided by somebody throwing a ball through a tire. I don’t think it’s part of hockey.”

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Last add shootout: Paul White of USA Today Baseball Weekly, says of the Sweden-Canada climax: “It was like having the seventh game of the World Series tied after 12 innings, stopping the game and deciding it with a home run derby.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the high school record for 100 meters?

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Name change: Will it be Roberto Kelly or Bobby Kelly for the Cincinnati Red center fielder this season?

“It’s Roberto,” Kelly said. “That Bobby guy was always hurt.”

As Bobby Kelly last year, he missed half the season after injuring his shoulder diving for a ball.

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Diplomatic corps: Ben Hogan played in only one British Open, in 1953 at Carnoustie. He won, but still had this to say about the Scottish greens:

“You can’t putt on putty. I’ve got a lawn mower back in Texas. I’ll send it over.”

Wonder what he would have said if he hadn’t won.

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Changing sports: Joe Morgan, baseball Hall of Famer, has become a tennis buff. Morgan says his forte is coming to the net after a big serve.

“You can’t knock me off the court,” Morgan told Tennis magazine. “I’ve faced Sandy Koufax’s 99-m.p.h. fastball, so everything’s easy after that.”

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Not bad: Turf writer Anne Lang of the Daily Racing Form calls thoroughbred owner-breeder A.J. Foyt “the John Henry of auto racing.”

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Forget records: Pitchers in the Hall of Fame usually have a solid won-and-lost record.

But not Satchel Paige and Rollie Fingers. Page won 28 and lost 31 in the big leagues, but he had done his best pitching as a much younger man in the Negro Leagues.

Fingers was 114-118, but his true value lay in his enormous number of saves.

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Trivia answer: Derrick Florence of Ball High in Galveston, Tex., with a time of 10.13 seconds in 1986.

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Quotebook: Senior golfer Rocky Thompson, asked how he knew that no one used a driver in competition as long as his 54-inch model: “Nobody else is that stupid.”